A Review of Mark Sullivan's Autobiography: The Education of an American

Date Published: January 8, 2025

A Review of “The Education of an American” by Mark Sullivan

• Reviews of the Day: 1938–39
• Selected Insights from “The Education of an American”
• This Author’s Thoughts on “The Education of an American”

​Reviews of the Day: 1938–39

“The Education of an American” was released in late 1938. Here are a few of the book reviews from that timeframe:

On November 19, 1938, The Philadelphia Enquirer wrote in its “Current Literature” column that Mark Sullivan “is the dean of Washington commentators. He writes of political characters as he mentions his neighbors, with sympathetic appreciation.

​"He is no flourisher of a branding iron. The Education of an American is a heartwarming book.”​

On November 20, 1938, The St. Joseph News Press wrote in its “Our Book Shelf” column that Mark Sullivan was “too stingy with the last ten or fifteen years. … He hints that maybe that is to be remedied. …

​"This book is a choice morsel. It is offered for the discriminating, for the seeker after fine writing, for the lover of America and American life.”

On November 24, 1938, The Kansas City Star took Mark Sullivan to task for his thoughts on Lincoln Steffens, the muckraker. The newspaper wrote in a column entitled “Historian of ‘Our Times’ Reviews His Own Part in the Social Drama,” that a reader “may gain the impression that Sullivan regards with some slight petulance the reputation Steffens gained as the first great muckraker. …

​“Steffens was never a great reporter, in Sullivan’s opinion. Furthermore, he says Steffens was a poseur [someone who pretends to be something they are not or to have qualities that they do not really have] and his long tenure of fame was due to the fact that he was ‘a radical living on into a period in which much of the writing was done by radicals.’ ”

On January 15, 1939, J. H. Leek of The Daily Oklahoman wrote that Mr. Sullivan’s “work is, to me, at any rate, marred by what I can only describe as unconscious smugness. It is not an aggressive egoism, but rather a quiet assumption of moral superiority which can be vastly irritating … typified in his amazingly ungenerous attitude toward Lincoln Steffens.”

​[Select this link or the image to read a review of Lincoln Steffens' autobiography]

On January 8, 1939, Thomas Lomax Hunter of the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote that in Mr. Sullivan’s “long career as a journalist he has had intimate contact with his most distinguished American contemporaries and the interesting events of his time. His column has been a faithful and fair chronicle of and commentary on those men and those events.

Was Lincoln Steffens "America's Greatest Reporter?"

“While Mr. Sullivan has not been without his partisan bias, he has always written with a high sense of the essential veracities. … His manner is calm, courteous and logical, and there is nothing in his writing of the shrill, falsetto and inflammatory fury of some of the more recent comers in his field. The book has in it the salt and savor of candor and wisdom.
​
“It is a solid and permanent contribution to American biography.”

​Insights from Mark Sullivan's Autobiography: "The Education of an American"

​-     Mark Sullivan Wrote About the Character of Hubert Hoover

“I had become acquainted with Hoover in Europe during the early months of the Great War, and was as much attracted by his qualities of personality as impressed by his extraordinary ability. …
​
“As I grew to know him well, the quality in him that most impressed me was his kindness, the deep well of good will that his shyness and reticence hid from many who did not see him in intimacy. It was a good will that was not measured merely by the sum of the pains he took, and the pleasure in being helpful to individuals. … It extended to all humanity; it was an attitude toward all life.”

​-     Mark Sullivan’s Insights into Business, Education, Journalism and Society

Front Cover and spine of "The Education of an American."

Business: “It is a fine experience to have a superior for whom one has both admiration and affection.”

Education: "Lists are, with some exceptions, an educational abomination; the memorizing of lists is not education at all. So far as education needs to do this sort of thing, it needs to do no more than teach the pupil where the lists can be found, and perhaps how to assemble information."

Journalism: “Accuracy of thinking is, for some kinds of writing, the foundation of everything. Given accuracy of thinking, clarity of expression can ordinarily be attained.”
​
Social: “What young couple is so poor today that a home is beyond them, granted the willingness to work with their hands, and granted that education and city life have not emasculated them? ... Much so-called social reform is governed by a spirit which puts the mark of intolerable burdens upon those conditions which require initiative and hard work.”

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As included above, several of the “Reviews of the Day” from 1938–39 did have trouble with one aspect of the book—Sullivan’s perspective on Lincoln Steffens. Notably it is one of the few times that Mr. Sullivan takes a fellow reporter to task within the covers of the book.
​
Several newspapers around the country expressed this as a sore point in their reviews.

As you will read below, I disagree with these reviews on this point.

Thoughts on Mark Sullivan’s Autobiography: "The Education of an American"

This is an interesting autobiography—only subject to the criticism that it ends all too early. One reviewer stated that it is one-half about Mark Sullivan’s growing up on a farm in early America and one-half about his pursuit of a career in journalism including some of his early accomplishments and early relationships in politics and business.

I, to, was disappointed when the autobiography ended so early in his career rather than capturing everything he had experienced through the date of publication in 1938. It pulls up short before the start of The Great War and only deals superficially with some character aspects concerning Herbert Hoover, and it only covers Woodrow Wilson as a reason for the loss of a very close friendship between the two top individuals he worked with and for at Collier’s.

Select image to read review of Mark Sullivan's "Our Times."

Having read and reviewed Lincoln Steffens autobiography, The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens: The Life Story of America’s Greatest Reporter, I already had the same opinion of Lincoln Steffens as was presented in this book by Mark Sullivan. I was interested to see that he thought similarly. From the title on the front page of the book forward, a reader has to separate Lincoln Steffen’s ego from reality … or at a minimum question the veracity of the information, as it seems always inflated with a pompous air. If Lincoln Steffens thought that he was America’s Greatest Reporter, obviously Mark Sullivan disagreed … as do I.

After reading both Mark Sullivan’s and Lincoln Steffen’s books, Sullivan expressed my thoughts through this autobiography about Lincoln Steffen. He also confirmed what I had read in another book by one of Lincoln Steffen’s peers—a fellow reporter and muckraker, at McClure’s Magazine: Ray Stannard Baker. This supporting information was in Stannard Baker’s autobiography: American Chronicle.

The only complaint that I would have of this book, as highlighted above, is that it omitted too much from Mark Sullivan’s career as a journalist and the relationships he had with such people as Herbert Hoover. His thoughts on FDR and The New Deal would have been very interesting to read.

Several of the reviewers above commented on how Mr. Sullivan closes the book out with words that seems to suggest he intended to write more at a later date: “this is another story.” Unfortunately, it appears from my research that a follow-on autobiographical update was never released.

That, I believe, is society’s loss. If there is anything that Mark Sullivan did best, it was maintaining his journalistic integrity so that even if you did not agree with him as a reader you could understand and accept his very well written and documented perspectives.

This is something we need more of in our 21st Century reporters and, dare I say, our 21st Century readership.

Cheers,
​
- Peter E.

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